Can you tell us about the Hibakusha, the surviving victims of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
The Hibakusha have to live their pain and suffering when they tell their stories to the outside world. And there are many who cannot tell their stories, as so many who are victims of war and tragedies cannot, and many are lucky enough to have told their stories. There was one man, Mr. Tanabe, who never told his stories until he became 60 years old, which is the time of renewal of a cycle in Japan. His parents died and his aunt and uncle brought him up. He did not want to cause any emotional trouble to them. How could he bear to go through all those years and have no feelings of retaliation or remorse? All he wanted to do was create a film of the stories of those who used to live in that area and show them what the atom bomb destroyed and how precious those lives were and that it should never happen again. Q: How do you see your role as a mayor? A: As mayors we have to be the (people’s) voices wherever we can and talk to the government so that they will listen to the voices and when we
